Pseudo-Hugo: The Warrior’s Apprentice

The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold, published 1986
(In-Universe #3 chronologically in the Miles Vorkosigan Saga)

Basically, stunted “mutant” Miles Vorkosigan (who you may remember from last time), fails to get into Military Academy, goes to see his grandma on the liberal planet, ends up accidentally getting into a war, and is (as he has been so perfectly described to me by a friend) “such a spaz.” But a genius, hilarious, endearing, and brilliant spaz.

I don’t have much to say about this. My sheer glee and adoration of it is beyond my powers of in-depth description at the moment (and frankly, I’d rather go to sleep, given the hour). What I do know is that I adore Miles Vorkosigan. My love for him is surpassed only by my love for Aral Vorkosigan. Curse these feudal class systems of honor and female oppression! They are far too tantalizing. Thousands of years of cultural evolution is hard to combat with only a few decades of feminism. That’s probably why all the female characters in these novels are such intense badasses. The Counts and Lords and all their barbaric ways speak so deeply to the human psyche, even as we know that the enjoyment of such things are a dirty secret to indulge in. I shall say that I am slightly willing to overlook the utter-oddness of some of the stuff in the first two books, just because it gets me Miles (and since they were written completely out of order, I guess maybe it took some retconning to get it to work right.)

Onward! I have checked out this entire series from the library in one fell (and, I am told, “aggressive”) swoop to prevent anyone else from checking them out while I’m trying to blast through them. Bwahaha. The next one is an actual Hugo winner.